It's at least one more day of torture as Team New Zealand and its fans are forced back to the drawing board.

A devastatingly unlucky day saw the race clock keep Team New Zealand from winning today's first race by a country mile, and a crucial mistake early on saw Oracle hold on for one more win in the second.

Watching the racing from Wellington's Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club, Joy Durrant said the regatta was like waiting for wisdom teeth to be pulled.

"You wait for them to come through so you can finally get them out, but they keep on going back in again, it's excruciating."

She said they would be back at the Yacht club to watch tomorrow's racing, with their fingers crossed they would be popping the bottle of champagne they bought to celebrate an America's Cup win.

"The first race was fabulous and it was just devastating they ran out of time. It was the first time I've seen Dean Barker show much emotion - let's hope they can put it away tomorrow."

Dale Adams also watched the race at the Port Nicholson Yacht Club. She said it was just "so exhausting".

"I'm going to have to bring my defibrillator to tomorrow's race, because it's just so heart stopping. It really is exhausting."

She said she thought the race clock rule seemed extreme.

"Local racing does have a time limit, but this is so incredibly short it seems ludicrous."

Online reaction to the races has centred largely on the race clock debacle of the first race.

Team New Zealand had the race and the cup as good as won, enjoying a 1200m lead but couldn't complete it in the 40-minute time limit.

Officials abandoned the race as the Kiwis approached the last mark.

Many commented on the unbelievable luck of Oracle.

Think focus is going from Barker being a champion skipper to Spithill being a magician. #AmericasCup